Bicarbonate of Soda and Birthday Parties
by MissFunkySocks
Summary: A drabble celebrating Bertolt's birthday and National Bicarbonate of Soda Day! Includes Armin in a pink apron, Jean covered in bicarbonate of soda, surprise birthday parties and CAKE BUDDIES! Part of my SnK project, see my profile for more info ;)


**Today, we'll be celebrating... NATIONAL BICARBONATE OF SODA DAY! And I just found out it's also Bertolt's birthday! Haha, I had fun writing this! There was much info about it so it was pretty hard to look into, but here's the result anyway! **

**My first fanfic in this project! Woohoo! (Actually, I wrote the New Years' one first, but this is the first to be published).**

* * *

Jean was annoyed. He had been trying to make a cake for the past hour, since the last one had failed miserably. He glared angrily at the burnt, collapsed, shapeless mess that he had spent an hour one.

Never mind. He had learnt from his mistakes, understood what when wrong and he would try again.

And this time, this time, it would turn out just right.

In fact, sponge cake is stupid. He'd make cheesecake. There was less chance of cheesecake collapsing and it looked pretty easy to make.

He'd make that peach melba one his mother had shown him long ago. He thought hard and remembered his several failures in the past to make peach melba cheesecake.

He shook his head. He'd stick with peanut butter cheesecake.

Now, several things went wrong in his cheesecake. The butter did not melt properly, and half of it ended up on the floor anyway, he had accidentally sent the crushed biscuit flying when he put a little too much enthusiasm in crushing it, the gelatine hadn't even dissolved in the water, he'd forgotten to add milk and he hadn't even oiled the pan to stop it from sticking.

The peanut butter cheesecake hadn't ended well, to say the least.

'Captain Levi's gonna kill me,' he despaired silently, looking at the mess around him that included butter, crushed biscuit, spilt oil, sugar, double cream and flour, all from both his first and second attempt.

His instinct told him to just dump the whole idea of cooking and buy one, but he refused to give up.

"I'm not going to lose to some stupid ingredients," he muttered resentfully, reaching up to get the bicarbonate of soda. Something pricked his finger and he drew back quickly, making the whole bottle of bicarbonate of soda...

Fall.

Armin chose to enter the kitchen at this moment.

"Jea- Oh. Um, what are you doing?" Armin asked, eyes wide with surprise.

"Making a cake. At least, I'm trying to."

"Oh," Armin laughed slightly. "You've made a bit of a mess. D'you want some help?"

'Yes,' he thought. "Nah, I'll be alright," he said.

He felt like banging his head on the wall.

"You sure?" Armin asked, eyebrows slightly raised.

'Please help!' Jean begged inwardly. "100% sure," he said aloud.

"Okay," Armin shrugged. "Call me if you need anything." And he left the kitchen.

Jean groaned. Why did he have to be so stubborn? Why couldn't he just swallow his pride and accept some help from a friend?

He set about trying to find the source of the prick, which had started to make his finger bleed, and to see if there was any more bicarbonate of soda.

There was a little left. 'Last attempt,' he promised himself. 'Then I'm cleaning up and buying one.'

"Here, you should oil the pan first."

Jean looked to the side in surprise. Armin was there, a slight, sweet smile on his face, sporting a pink apron, and the oil in his hand. 'My saviour,' he thought wryly, taking the oil with a 'thanks'.

"You're welcome. Guess you wanted some help then," Armin smiled. "You've always been too stubborn for your own good."

"I'm not stubborn," Jean argued indignantly. "I just wanted to try it out for myself."

Armin laughed. "You're pouting!"

"Shut up," Jean muttered half-heartedly, turning away as he turned slightly pink. He had _not _pouted.

"You've made an absolute mess, you failed two attempts at a simple cake, you're covered in bicarbonate of soda and you're still trying to protect your pride?" Armin laughed, dodging as Jean sent a purposely badly-aimed punch at him.

"Shut your hole, you talk too much," Jean grinned.

And the two worked together, with Armin pretty much doing everything and Jean trying to feel like he was actually doing something.

**-Later-**

"Me and Armin made a cake!" Jean grinned at the table.

"Really? Ooh, that's so nice of you! I love cake!" Sasha said, wriggling in anticipation.

"I love cake too!" Mike said. "High five!"

Levi rolled his eyes, and Erwin dropped his head in his hands.

"_Must_ you two high five for everything?" Petra asked defeatedly.

"Yep!" Mike and Sasha said together. "We're besties for life!" Sasha added.

"Besties for life for life!" Mike grinned.

"High five!"

"When was the last time we had cake?" Eren wondered aloud.

"I'll go get it," Armin said, slipping out of his seat.

He returned with a large chocolate cake with white chocolate icing and dark chocolate chips.

"Oooh!" many of them chorused.

"It looks amazing," Mikasa complimented. Armin beamed, hearing the under layer of warmth in her voice.

"Quick, Bertolt should be coming soon, the shop isn't that far from here," Reiner warned them.

"Yeah, we need to hide everything!" Hanji said, beginning to panic. She threw all the sweets she had gathered for the party into the kitchen.

"Squad leader," Moblit cried, running after the sweets to put them in a better hiding place.

Soon, everything was packed away and hidden, and everyone was doing their own thing casually.

"Why am I doing this?" Levi muttered to himself.

"Cheer up, Captain Levi, it's his _birthday. _It's a special occasion!" Eren grinned.

"Well, we'd better not be doing this for everyone's birthday, or I'm going to crack."

Jean gulped as he remembered the Levi had not yet seen the mess in the kitchen.

* * *

Bertolt returned and looked suspicious immediately.

"Why are so many of you downstairs?" he asked.

"We were just talking about, uh, the titans," Hanji said immediately, looking desperately at Moblit for help.

"We were just saying how much worse things would be if the titans had intelligence!" he said, breathing a sigh of relief when Bertolt seemed to accept this answer and move into the kitchen to put the milk he'd bought away. Armin jumped up.

"Oh, it's okay, I'll put it back, no need to worry," Armin said with a fake smile, trying to block Bertolt's view of the kitchen. He was, however, a whole ruler taller than him, so he tried closing the door instead. "You should rest, you look really tired."

"Okay..." Bertolt said, looking at Armin in concern. "Are you ill?"

"No, no!"

Bertolt eventually went back into the living room, where everyone came downstairs. They all looked sombre, and Jean noted that they were all surprisingly good actors, except Sasha. Her acting was so bad when they rehearsed this little part earlier, they concluded that she should stay at the back, out of sight. Jean hoped she wouldn't giggle.

"Bertolt, we have something to tell you," Reiner said seriously.

"What?" Bertolt looked seriously scared and worried.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"Happy birthday, Berty the Bday boy," Ymir smirked, ruffling his hair.

"Wh- H- Are y- What?" Bertolt stammered.

"It was Reiner's idea," Armin said, eyes glittering.

"He told us it was your birthday and that we should make a surprise party for you," Jean grinned. All those attempts at the cake and getting bicarbonate of soda all over him was worth the look of gratitude that befell Bertolt's face.

And let's just say, the food was devoured very quickly, with the help of Sasha and Mike.

"Cake buddies!"

"High five!"

"Jean, why have you got white powder in your hair?"

* * *

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BERTOLT! Berty the Bday Boy ;)**

**Haha, I have no idea how Mike and Sasha ended up best friends but you know, these things randomly happen as I type. I've always seen Mike as a childish (ALIVE) person.**

**When I looked at Bertolt's and Armin's heights, the difference was so big I ended up using Google Calculator, because I'm a lazy, half-assed bitch like that. Whatevs.**

**I TRIED to not add any pairings but the Jean x Armin just ended up so strong in this, oops! I'd appreciate a fanart of Armin in a pink apron and Jean covered in bicarbonate of soda.**

**Because bicarbonate of soda is sexy. **

**And so are pink aprons.**


End file.
